Those of our sinful race who have been chosen by God, in Christ Jesus before the world began, have been chosen to be holy and unto the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of the divine will. All such have in Christ Jesus been redeemed by His precious blood and have procured for them the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God’s grace.
In each individual case, and in God’s time to favour them in their personal experience, they are called by means of the Word of the truth of the Gospel and by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, to trust in Christ Jesus for their personal participation in redemption and other blessings related thereto. They are now living and enlightened sons of God: “for as many as are led of the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
And the Apostle Paul exhorts all who are divinely and savingly called to be the children of God, that they “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called”. All who profess to be truly regenerated are required to have serious, constant and spiritual concern as to how they ought to walk, or live, inwardly and outwardly, in private and public, in relation to God and His expressed mind and will and in relation to their neighbour.
The Word of God exposes as liars those who say that they know God and yet do not keep His commandments. The Lord’s people are certainly not perfect in this world as to their personal conformity to the divine will in their life and conversation; but their continual desire is to be kept from falling into sin of any kind in their practice, and, of course, their prayer is that God would cleanse them within from secret faults, that is, in their hearts.
God sees all sons of men full well and knows all concerning each one of us. We can hide nothing from Him who searches the heart and this the genuine believer is deeply sensible of again and again. And our actual conduct, wherever we may be is open and exposed to the eyes of God. This is an inexpressibly solemn thought. The natural man, even under the instruction of the Scriptures concerning the name and glory of God, is not affected by the divine omniscience. He involves himself in evil and transgression with complacency. The assured conviction of one in Old Testament times, who exclaimed: “Thou God seest me”, surely influences all who truly fear God.
The Christian is to walk so as to please God and no doubt this is a high standard which confronts every one who professes to be devoted to the service and honour of God. The Word of God clearly directs such to be “obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation and godliness.” Their pre-conversion days, whether few or many, suffice and more than suffice as to time spent in the past walking according to the course of this world. Now the Christian is to earnestly and prayerfully seek to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” And so it is evident from Scripture that the walk of the Christian, to be pleasing to the Most High, must inevitably be the outcome and fruit of the reign of the blessed Holy Spirit within and over the whole heart.
The Lord Jesus advised the disciples around Him to watch and pray, lest they should enter into temptation. For the Christian to ‘relax’ into an unwatchful and prayerless frame is dangerous in the extreme, as sin and the devil are ever ready to divert the heart and the feet of the believer into forbidden, evil and harmful byways which can only bring guilt and grief. Sobriety and vigilance, in every sense, are necessary because the believer’s adversary the devil will be encountered at times as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and at other times as an angel of light endeavouring to deceive. There must be a watching against giving place to sin in the heart; for cherishing sin in the heart will be liable to lead to giving place to sin in our walk, in our practice. This is what mars the profession and the influence of such as name the name of Christ. But as Paul writes to Timothy, “And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity”. This departing from iniquity is what Christ Jesus requires, what the true Church of Christ looks for from her members and what even the carnal world expects from professing Christians. The intelligent and informed men of the world, who are not themselves involved in religion, can well discern where there is a profession of Christianity without a godly walk and conversation. The Christian is to let his light so shine before men that they shall behold his good works and come to glorify God. For instance, the Apostle Paul indicates in writing to the Ephesians that walking worthily includes walking “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
We find in the Scriptures prayers and petitions on the part of the Lord’s people which reveal their personal concern and anxiety as to their walk, and that it be pleasing to God. David prayed: “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” Prayer for strength, for guidance and keeping in relation to a godly walk, in the midst of an evil world, characterises the exercised believer in his approaches to God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And their prayers will be heard, as Jesus said: “… and pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
The walk of the Christian ought to be an example within the realm of the Church and also before the gaze of a carnal world. Paul exhorts thus: “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.” This was of course the eminent Apostle; nevertheless Christians should seek humbly and in the strength of God to so follow the Redeemer as to be an example to others. To be a stumbling block to others carries heavy responsibility as before God.
We are all walking to Eternity and in a manner to the Judgment Seat of Christ. How are we walking according to the light and judgment of God’s Word? There are those who are walking upon the broadway that leads to everlasting destruction. True Christians are walking upon the narrow way that leads to life and glory. They surely shall be known and read of all men as they who have in view and in faith a better country, even as heavenly, at the end of life’s journey. “They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.” (Ps. 89 : v. 15).